Hub.

Saying, "What lack you?" and "Where lies your
grief?"

Or "What good love may I perform for you?"
Many a poor man's son would have lien still
And ne'er have spoke a loving word to you;
But you at your sick service had a prince.
Nay, you may think my love was crafty love,
And call it cunning: do, an if you will:

50

If heaven be pleased that you must use me ill, 55
Why then you must. Will you put out mine eyes?
These eyes that never did nor never shall

So much as frown on you.

I have sworn to do it;

And with hot irons must I burn them out. Arth. Ah, none but in this iron age would do it! The iron of itself, though heat red-hot, Approaching near these eyes, would drink my tears And quench his fiery indignation

Even in the matter of mine innocence;

63. his] Capell; this Ff.

stood... neere unto Vertue, but making a shew of fearfulnesse to approach her and the light: yet still and anon casting her eyes sometimes to the one side beneath." Perhaps this phrase has some connection with the curious "still-an-end" of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Iv. iv. 67. Schmidt calls this latter a corruption of "still and anon."

50. lien] A form of the participle of "lie," which survived right into the nineteenth century (see New Eng. Dict.); now superseded by the form "lain. The first three Folios have "lyen," the fourth "lain." In

60

"lien" ("I heard of an Egyptian That had nine hours lien dead").

52. at your sick service] An abbreviation for "at your service when you were sick." Compare "true defence" in iv. iii. 84 infra. Perhaps we ought to read "sick-service" (service to a sick man in his bedchamber).

57. nor] Pope reads "and," for, by his time, the double negative had become incorrect.

61. heat] heated. Shakespeare often used abbreviated past participles in "t" in this way.

64. the matter of mine innocence] Pericles, III. ii. 85, we again read Let us hope that Shakespeare here

Nay, after that, consume away in rust,

But for containing fire to harm mine eye.

Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron?
An if an angel should have come to me

And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes,

65

I would not have believed him,-no tongue but

Hubert's.

Hub. Come forth.

70

[Stamps.

Re-enter Executioners, with a cord, irons, etc.

Do as I bid you do.

Arth. O, save me, Hubert, save me! my eyes are out
Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men.
Hub. Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here.
Arth. Alas, what need you be so boisterous-rough?
I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still.
For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound!
Nay, hear me, Hubert, drive these men away,
And I will sit as quiet as a lamb;

75

80

71.

67. stubborn-hard] first hyphened by Theobald (1740) (ed. 2). Stamps] omitted Ff. 76. boisterous-rough] hyphened by Theobald. meant "the substance which be- attempt to regularise this line is to tokens my innocence (the water of my spoil it. tears) (Moore-Smith), rather than the "secretion," "exudation," of Schmidt. But compare iv. ii. 79-81 supra.

77. stone-still] Common in Elizabethan English, and found more than once in Chaucer. Compare Florio's Montaigne (ed. Waller, p. 12): "She stood afraid, stonestill at the strange sight"; and Lucrece, 1730: "Stone still, astonished with this deadly deed."

70. I would... Hubert's] This line, with the exception of the substitution of a comma and a dash for the colon after "him" is the reading of the Folios, and gives excellent 78. heaven sake] Another instance sense if we will only be good enough of the omission of the mark of the to allow Shakespeare to use an possessive when clashing with ellipsis. "I would not have believed another sibilant. Compare" Alcides him,-(I will believe) no tongue but shows," II. i. 144 supra. Hubert's." There are many emendations.

73. O, save me, Hubert, etc.] To

80. quiet as a lamb] Proverbial; found in Heywood's Pericles (1546).

I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word,

Nor look upon the iron angerly:

Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you,

Whatever torment you do put me to.

Hub. Go, stand within; let me alone with him.

First Exec. I am best pleased to be from such a deed.

85

[Exeunt Executioners.

Arth. Alas, I then have chid away my friend!
He hath a stern look, but a gentle heart:
Let him come back, that his compassion may
Give life to yours.

Hub.

Come, boy, prepare yourself. 90

Arth. Is there no remedy?

Hub.

None, but to lose your eyes.

Arth. O heaven, that there were but a mote in yours,
A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair,

Any annoyance in that precious sense!

Then, feeling what small things are boisterous there, 95
Your vile intent must needs seem horrible.

Hub. Is this your promise? go to, hold your tongue.

81. wince] The first Folio reads winch, evidently a form of "wince.' All the Quartos and Folios of Hamlet, except the 1603 Quarto, print III. ii. 252 as "Let the galled jade winch."

85. let me alone with him] trust me to deal with him. So Twelfth Night, 11. iii. 145: "For Monsieur Malvolio, let me alone with him." Compare also Twelfth Night, III. iv. 201: "Let me alone for swearing"; and Middleton, A Trick, i. 1 (Mermaid ed. p. 8): "if his nephew be poor indeed he lets God alone with him,"

91. None, but to lose your eyes] This answer seems to imply that losing the eyes was a remedy. We may construe "remedy" as alternative, and then we have to ask alternative to what? Vaughan omits "to," and explains "None, but lose your eyes" as "no remedy against losing your eyes." Perhaps Hubert is thinking of John's command to put Arthur to death, and this putting out of the eyes is a remedy against that.

92. mote] So Steevens (1793), after Long MS. and a conjecture of Upton's. The Folios have moth, and mote and moth are the same words,

Arth. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues

Hub.

Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes:

Let me not hold my tongue, let me not, Hubert; 100

Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,

So I may keep mine eyes: O, spare mine eyes,
Though to no use but still to look on you!

Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold

And would not harm me.

I can heat it, boy.

Arth. No, in good sooth; the fire is dead with grief,
Being create for comfort, to be used

In undeserved extremes: see else yourself;

There is no malice in this burning coal;

105

The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out IIO
And strew'd repentant ashes on his head.

Hub. But with my breath I can revive it, boy.
Arth. An if you do, you will but make it blush

And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert:
Nay, it perchance will sparkle in your eyes;
And like a dog that is compell'd to fight,

IOI. will, cut] Rowe; will cut Ff.

98, 99. the utterance of a brace of tongues, etc.] Two tongues would be unable to plead sufficiently for two eyes. Vaughan's inversion of

"the pleading for a pair of eyes Must needs want utterance of a brace of tongues' is unnecessary if we give "want its proper force of "fall short in," as in IV. iii. 138 infra: "Let hell want pains enough to torture me."

106-108. No, in good sooth extremes] no, in truth; the fire is dead with grief (for it was created for

115

Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on.
All things that you should use to do me wrong
Deny their office: only you do lack

That mercy which fierce fire and iron extends,
Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.

Hub. Well, see to live; I will not touch thine eye
For all the treasure that thine uncle owes :
Yet am I sworn and I did purpose, boy,
With this same very iron to burn them out.
Arth. O, now you look like Hubert! all this while
You were disguised.

Hub.

Peace; no more. Adieu.

Your uncle must not know but you are dead;
I'll fill these dogged spies with false reports:

122. eye] Ff; eyes Steevens (1793) (Capell conj.).

117. Snatch] snap, bite.

117. tarre] urge. Mid. Eng. terren, or terien, to incite. Compare Hamlet, II. ii. 370: "The nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy.' The word still exists in dialect (see Eng. Dialect Dict.). Halliwell's Dict. quotes Wilbraham (p. 112) under Tarr-on: "To excite to anger or violence; is still used in Cheshire. It is a good old word, used by Wicliffe in his Path Waye to Perfect Knowledg; and also in a MS. translation of the Psalms by Wicliffe, penes me: 'They have terrid thee to ire.'

119-121. only you do lack mercy-lacking uses] you alone lack that mercy which even fire and iron exhibit,-fire and iron, things notably used in affairs where no mercy is required. The number of the verb "extends" may be explained by supposing that fire and iron really conveyed but one idea to the mind.

122. see to live] Elze (Athen. 1867) conjectures either "live to see

or

120

125